Because the Commonwealth will have an uncertain future without Elizabeth II
In recent years, the charisma of Elizabeth II, an elderly and lovable queen, had acted as a kind of dam to contain a latent malaise in some Commonwealth states. But what was tolerated with her may be different with the new king. The article by El País
It promised to be an idyllic royal visit, but turned out to be a diplomatic nightmare. Prince William and his wife Kate – El País reads – traveled to the Caribbean last March to strengthen the ties of the British monarchy with the Commonwealth states that were moving away from colonial power. It was a failure.
In Belize, they were forced to cancel a visit to a cocoa plantation after a group of activists refused to allow them to land on their land to protest colonial-era rights violations. Later, in Jamaica, the couple came under fire when their image of them waving goodbye to a crowd of black children huddled around a barbed wire fence was released. A ride in the Queen's 1962 jeep finally awakened the darkest colonial ghosts.
Everything screeched on that trip to the Caribbean on the occasion of the Queen's 70th jubilee. However, it has served above all as a thermometer of a mood perceived as being in turmoil in some Commonwealth territories, where the death of Queen Elizabeth II threatens to fuel the debate on the future of certain member states.
During the reign of Elizabeth II, the Commonwealth grew from 7 to 56 members. In total, 2.5 billion people – more than a third of the world's population – are under the umbrella of an organization without real power or shared sovereignty, but which serves as an institutional expression of Britain's complex relationship with its former colonies. The king appears as head of state in his most formal version in 14 of these countries, including Canada, Australia, Belize, Jamaica, New Zealand and Papua New Guinea. As many as 36 of the Commonwealth member states are republics and the rest have other monarchs.
The death of Elizabeth II could give new impetus to republicanism in some of these 14 countries. The first to speak after the queen's death was the Prime Minister of Antigua and Barbuda, Gaston Browne, who confirmed his intention to hold a referendum and said that declaring the republic "is not an act of hostility […] is the final step in completing the circle of independence, to ensure that we are a truly sovereign nation, ”he said last weekend. Barbados has already proclaimed itself a republic last year by breaking away from the British crown, while Jamaica, Antigua and Barbuda and Belize are planning to hold a referendum.
The late queen worked hard to maintain relations with the Commonwealth countries, dedicating a third of her trips abroad to them. But the role of the queen is not hereditary and it was only in 2018 that the Commonwealth countries decided in Windsor that the current King Charles III would take over the leadership of the organization after the queen's death.
"The queen's death marks the definitive break with imperial Britain", headlined the British magazine New Statesman , alluding to the new era that is opening up in the United Kingdom and that necessarily reverberates in those countries over which it once exercised imperial power . In recent years, the charisma of Elizabeth II, an elderly and lovable queen, had acted as a kind of dam to contain a latent malaise, but what was tolerated with her may be different with the new king, because personal respect for the queen is not necessarily hereditary.
The times are different and so are the sensitivities. "The mood is changing," says Philip Murphy, a historian of the University of London and former director of the Institute of Commonwealth Studies. “Colonialism was the elephant in the room. There is much more awareness of the legacy of slavery and colonialism. There is a new generation of activists who talk about the brutality of colonialism and demand redress for slavery in the Caribbean, and this helps to create a favorable climate for the republican movement ”, he warns. And he adds: “It does not seem logical to the Republicans that in the 21st century the head of state of a country lives in London and is a British monarch. But this must not affect relations with the Commonwealth ”.
Murphy recalls that the change has already begun, especially in the Caribbean, and that it is happening in a quiet, almost natural way. Proof of this is the presence of the Prince of Wales, the current king, in Barbados on the day of the proclamation of the Republic last year. “Yours is a story that every Barbadian, young and old, can be proud of, inspired by what came before and confident in what will come next. […] You are the guardians of your heritage and the constant craftsmen of your destiny ”, he said, suggesting the acceptance of an inevitable reality. The reassurance also has to do with the fact that becoming a republic does not mean leaving the Commonwealth. For example, when Barbados became a republic, it decided to remain part of the Commonwealth. But also because, beyond the symbolic aspect, the real power of the organization is limited. “The Commonwealth doesn't have an impressive record of achievement over the past 30 years. It is a marginal diplomatic network, particularly useful for small countries, but which has partly lost its raison d'etre ”, says Murphy.
However, the power of symbols should not be underestimated. The identity and the underground struggle that runs through some Commonwealth countries could open deep cracks in the organization. Hence the conscious effort, starting from the 1990s, to present itself as a union of common values rather than a shared history and to focus on issues such as climate change and human rights.
The ripple effect has also reached Australia, where the queen's death has helped to give new impetus to the debate. Cindy McCreery, a historian from the University of Sydney who specializes in the British royal family, explains in an interview that there is currently no referendum in Australia. This was at least during the first term of the current prime minister, Anthony Albanese, who recently appointed a minister to oversee the transition to the Republic. Adam Bandt, leader of the Australian Greens, was quick to call for a change following events in the UK. "We have to become a republic," he tweeted after the queen's death. Albanese, meanwhile, was forced to defend the official day of mourning and public holidays decreed in his country for the death of Elizabeth II in the face of protests from shopkeepers and health workers.
But it is one thing whether the debate has become more uncomfortable and another is whether there is a serious risk of a split in the Commonwealth. McCreery is more optimistic that somehow issues that worry many of the small states of the Commonwealth, such as climate change, fall into the priorities of Charles III. "The Commonwealth is a platform that allows countries to talk to each other and it will be there that the king will have more space than in his country to address these issues," concludes McCreery.
(Extract from the foreign press review by eprcomunicazione )
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/mondo/perche-il-commonwealth-avra-un-futuro-incerto-senza-elisabetta-ii/ on Sat, 17 Sep 2022 05:27:46 +0000.